How can we stop telemarketers?

EDITOR: Since the FTC does not enforce their do-not-call law, telemarketers are ramping up in increasing numbers to ply their obnoxious wares upon those who still have landlines.

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We entered our phone numbers (three at that time) into the do-not-call database when this was first enacted. At first, the telemarketer activity on our lines seemed to have diminished considerably (except for some idiot pushing carper cleaning in El Dorado county).

However, lately the telemarketers have noticed that no one is enforcing the FTC law so they feel free to restart their activities (on our present two lines). In addition, they are doing that with little or no research (or consideration) as to whether or not the people being called would even be interested in whatever “service (?)” they could offer.

For example, we have not paid any credit card interest since the IRS quit accepting “arms length interest” as a tax deduction (1987?). But we still get regular calls from an outfit that calls itself “Credit Card Services.” This continues even though I have hit the key to talk to a real live person who hangS up when I tell them we currently pay no credit card interest but would like to know how far negative they would go. We are now forced to act like a lot of our friends and let the call go onto our answering machines until we find that the call is actually someone we want to talk to.